13 GLOBAL MARKETING COMMUNICATION

LEARNING OBJECTIVE:
1. Define global advertising and identify the top- ranked companies in
terms of worldwide ad spending
2. Explain the structure of the advertising industry and describe the
difference between agency holding companies and individual agency
brand
3. Identify key ad agency personel and describe their respective roles in
creating global advertising
4. Explain how media availability varies around the world
5. Compare and contract publicity and public relations and identify global
companies that have recently been impacted by negative publicity.
• TABLE 13-1 Top 25 Global Marketers by Ad Spending, 2009 ($ millions)
Company/Headquarters Worldwide United States Asia* Europe Latin America
1. Procter & Gamble (United States) $8,678 $2,838 $1,777 $3,004 $341
2. Unilever (United Kingdom, Netherlands) 6,033 864 1,632 2,340 578
3. L’Oréal (France) 4,559 890 748 2,605 115
4. General Motors Corp. (United States) 3,268 2,214 112 663 126
5. Nestlé (Switzerland) 2,615 844 261 1,229 135
6. Coca-Cola Co. (United States) 2,442 406 602 1,057 181
7. Toyota Motor Corp. (Japan) 2,305 836 818 503 27
8. Johnson & Johnson (United States) 2,250 1,296 250 567 29
9. Reckitt Benckiser (Great Britain) 2,236 473 209 1,297 117
10. Kraft Foods (United States) 2,117 791 146 925 124
11. McDonald’s (United States) 2,075 874 365 690 40
12. Ford Motor Co. (United States) 2,057 1,098 40 612 128
13. Volkswagen (Germany) 1,937 258 99 1,448 94
14. Pfizer (United States) 1,827 1,518 110 124 31
15. Sony Corp. (Japan) 1,714 793 222 613 20
16. GlaxoSmithKline (United Kingdom) 1,630 798 143 530 93
 GLOBAL ADVERTISING CONTENT:STANDARDIZATION VS ADAPTATION
Four major difficulties can compromise an organization’s attempt to communicate with customers in any location
1. The message may not get through to the intended recipient. This problem may be the result of an advertiser’s
lack of knowledge about appropriate media for reaching certain types of audiences.
2. The message may reach the target audience but may not be understood or may even be misunderstood.
This can be the result of an inadequate understanding of the target audience’s level of sophistication or
improper encoding.
3. The message may reach the target audience and may be understood but still may not compel the recipient to
take action. This could result from a lack of cultural knowledge about a target audience.
4. The effectiveness of the message can be impaired by noise. Noise, in this case, is an external influence, such
as competitive advertising, other sales personnel, or confusion at the receiving end, that can detract from the
ultimate effectiveness of the communication
The key question for global marketers is whether the specific advertising message and media strategy must be
changed from region to region or country to country because of environmental requirements
The question of when to use each approach depends on the product involved and a company’s objectives in a particular
market. The following generalizations can serve as guidelines:
1. Standardized print campaigns can be used for industrial products or for high-tech consumer products.
Examples: Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
2. Standardized print campaigns with a strong visual appeal often travel well.
Example: Chivas Regal (“This is the Chivas Life”). Similarly, no text appears in the assembly instructions for IKEA
furniture. Picture-based instructions can be used throughout the world without translation.
3. TV commercials that use voiceovers instead of actors or celebrity endorsers speaking dialogue can use standardized
visuals with translated copy for the voiceover. Examples: Gillette (“The best a man can get”); GE (“Imagination at
work”); UPS (“We ♥ Logistics”